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Statement on Team Canada Decision

23 March 2020 Gilles LeBlanc

Softball Canada fully supports the Canadian Olympic Committee’s (COC) difficult decision of not sending Canadian teams to the Olympic and Paralympic Games in the summer of 2020. The current COVID-19 pandemic is being felt worldwide and we are proud to stand behind their stance of putting the health and wellbeing of all Canadians above all else by calling for the postponement of the Games.

“Softball Canada applauds the COC for making the health and safety of our Canadian athletes, coaches, officials and fans its first priority” stated Softball Canada President Scott Neiles. “Though we feel these measures are necessary, we want to recognize the strong emotions our Team Canada softball team and officials are going through right now. We would like to take this opportunity to truly thank our entire team of athletes, coaches, support staff and our appointed officials for their incredible level of commitment, dedication and hard work that they have demonstrated in preparing for softball’s return to the Olympic Games and we remain hopeful that they will have the opportunity to participate in Tokyo at a later date.”

The sport of softball was played at the 1996-2008 Olympic Summer Games and was scheduled to make its return in 2020 after being left of the programme in 2012 and 2016.